SHNH summer meeting and AGM in association with the British Ornithologists’ Club

Thursday 14th and Friday 15th June 2018

2018 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific. A pivotal moment in the history of exploration, Cook’s voyages influenced many areas of science and endeavour – from astronomy and geology to natural history and anthropology.

This international meeting, held in association with the British Ornithologists’ Club, will focus on the lives, encounters, contributions and legacies of many of those involved in the history of natural history exploration around the world, from land to sea – the risks they took, the discoveries made, their contributions to science, and the ingenuity and endeavour involved in the process. It will also examine some of the complexities and controversies surrounding many centuries of natural history exploration and discovery.

The Society’s AGM will take place at lunchtime of Thursday 14th June. There will also be lunch and a tour of Knowsley Hall on the afternoon of Wednesday 13th June for those interested (leaving at 12 noon from Liverpool City Centre).

Papers will include the following or related topics from any era covering any area of natural history – botany, zoology and geology:

Provisional Programme

Thursday 14th June

9.00-9.20 Registration

9.20-9.30 Welcome to World Museum

Morning session: Cook, Banks and beyond…

9.30-10.10 Keynote Speaker – Jordan Goodman, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, In the Wake of Cook? Joseph Banks and his ‘Favorite Projects’

10.10-10.35 Edwin Rose, University of Cambridge, Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and the practice of natural history on board HMS Endeavour (1768–71)

10.35-10.55 Maureen Lazarus and Heather Pardoe, National Museum Wales, Banks’ Florilegium: the first natural history artists recording the unknown

10.55-11.15 Break for tea / coffee

11.15-11.40 Jack Ashby, Grant Museum of Zoology, University College London

“Contrary to the general laws of nature”: Europe’s earliest encounters with Australian animals

11.40-12.05 Stanislav Strekopytov, Natural History Museum, Instructions for preservation of natural history specimens at the time of Cook’s voyages

12.05-12.30 Zoë Varley, University of Sheffield and Natural History Museum, Robert FitzRoy: Captain, Collector and Collaborator

9.20-9.45 Mark Carine, Fred Rumsey, Malcolm Penn, Natural History Museum, From Peckham to Pegu: the assembly and classification of the Sloane herbarium

9.45-10.10 Jeanne Robinson and Geoff Hancock, Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, William Hunter’s museum as a paradigm for 18th century collection practices

10.10-10.35 Jacek Wajer1, D.J. Mabberley and D.T. Moore, Natural History Museum1, Piecing together a 200 year-old botanical jigsaw: the search for the specimens of the Australian plants collected by Robert Brown during the Investigator voyage (1801-1805)